Page 60 of The Progressions

“What is that?” he asked.

“It’s Oren,” I said. “I finally got him to carry his walkie-talkie.” I picked it up. “Oren, did you just roger beep on purpose?”

It beeped again and Tyler looked at me. “Does that mean yes, or no?” he asked, and I wasn’t sure. I needed to go find out whatwas wrong so I wasn’t able to finish our conversation about his friendly dinner. The message he had sent about “me and Kasia” definitely gave the wrong impression, one that I was sure he hadn’t meant to convey.

But it wouldn’t have been so bad to eat out, I thought. I would just need to prep everything at home so that my dad was ok, and then I’d be able to enjoy myself. He and Miss Gail were walking together tomorrow, which meant I would go home after my meeting with the college registrar to pick him up, and then I would drop him off at the condo complex and work there. Before that meeting, I had an interview for another administrative job, because I’d been expecting that email from the calculator company human resources department. This new position would give me more hours and also, more benefits. If I got it, then I wouldn’t have time to do a second job during the day, like selling snow shovels in July or troubleshooting calculator problems that I didn’t understand. I wouldn’t work at the condo complex anymore and I also wouldn’t have time for classes. It was for the best.

But first? Oren. I roger-beeped him right back, following the noise until I found him. He stood in the shadows near the door of the unit where the guy had the treasure chest, the one full of prescription drugs.

“What’s up?” I asked, and he pointed to a mess on the pathway. “What is all that?”

He still didn’t answer, but I could see for myself. It was a pile of pills and an empty amber bottle, with the white safety cap lying in the sparse grass nearby. I picked it up and read the nameof the resident whom I’d advised to dispose of all that extra medication.

“It looks like he dropped these,” I mentioned. “I’ll take a picture and send it to him, so he can get a refill or something.”

Oren stared at me.

“What?” I asked, but he only shrugged a little and walked off. “I don’t know what you’re trying to tell me.” He kept going, and he still didn’t respond. “Please clear the drain on the east side of the parking lot,” I called, but he had disappeared behind one of the high hedges that separated one unit from the next.

I hadn’t told anyone about my upcoming meeting with the registrar or about my job interview, for various reasons. My dad would have been upset, Iva would have blabbed, Tyler would have been mad, and Miss Gail would have asked me if I was sure. I wasn’t, not at all. But I had to do something, didn’t I? Wasn’t that obvious, after everything happened with Iva? And it was like I could see my dad slipping farther away…so the next morning was serious, and I needed to sleep well that night. But as I lay in my bed, my thoughts raced and the mattress poked, and I couldn’t.

Besides my lack of sleep, other things went wrong the next day. The back of my car fell off and I didn’t notice, so I had to waste tons of time finding it and wiring it on. While I’d done that, I got grease on the skirt of my best outfit, and that wasn’t looking great, either. Kind of ratty, actually, because I had been wearing it a lot. The meetings were nerve-wracking, too—it was myfuture that was at stake, as well as my father’s. Was I messing it up or making it better?

So, by the time I got my dad and walked him up to Tyler’s condo, I was a bit of a mess. He happily went to see baby Balderston, since it had been a few days, but Miss Gail stayed with me and seemed concerned. She never looked anything but perfectly turned out (like, even for a walk, her makeup was on point), and she was startled by my appearance.

“Baby, what are you wearing tonight for your dinner?” she asked me, and I saw her eyes quickly flick to the grease stain. It probably wouldn’t come out in the wash, but the worst part was that it had happened on the way to my job interview. I’d had to keep my hand or arm covering the upper part of my thigh and it had been an awkward position to hold as we’d walked and they’d asked their questions.

I also looked down at myself and felt underwhelmed. “I know it’s not great, but this is my best outfit, and I don’t have time to go home and get something else. And honestly, I don’t have any extra money for gas.” I lowered my voice. “We’re going to see the nutritionist because my dad listens to him, and I have to pay for that. It’s fine,” I assured her, because she was looking even more concerned. “There’s just not enough for extras right now.”

“We’ll think of something for tonight,” she told me. “Don’t worry.”

I went back to the condo after I’d put in my hours at the leasing office, which was an experience that was more fraught than usual. The guy with the pharmaceutical treasure chest hadflipped out about the spilled pills that Oren had come across on the ground, insisting that he hadn’t dropped them, and that he had heard our complex was overrun with raccoons.

“I bet they stole that snowblower that went missing!” he accused.

“No, absolutely not. No raccoon could have carried—”

“They’ve been in my home!” he told me furiously, pounding a feeble fist on my desk. “I’ve seen their eyes.” He glanced around us, checking the trailer for more trash pandas.

“Don’t hit my desk, and don’t raise your voice,” I told him, and he apologized. I managed to calm him, kind of, and got rolling on the rest of the work for the day. When I was finally done and went back to the condo, Iva and my dad were gone—she had taken him in her car, without me noticing, for a haircut.

“Really? I usually do it at home,” I said. I hadn’t exactly told my dad how stretched we were this month, and I wondered where they’d gone and how much it would cost.

“Iva had a coupon for a big discount. He was looking a little shaggy,” Miss Gail said, and I knew that was true. I did my best with haircuts but I wasn’t overly successful. “I wanted to get her out, too, so Jerry and I came up with a plan. They’ll bring home dinner, and that’s my treat.” She smiled at me. “Now it’s your turn! Bring that baby in his bouncy seat and come on into my bedroom. We already laid out your wardrobe choices for tonight.”

“My what?” I asked, but I followed her.

Tyler got home and took over the care of baby Balderston while she was dressing me, like she would have done for a doll. In fact, she told me that she’d loved to play with those when she was a little girl and she’d always wished for a daughter.

“Of course, not all girls like doing this,” she said. We’d been in the bathroom for what felt like hours to do hair, makeup, and nail stuff.

“I don’t mind it,” I said. “You did a very good job with what I had.”

“You were good to begin with,” she told me, but she’d made my hair look shinier and neater, with the almost-black waves tamed to be less…less than usual, tamped down and controlled. She’d also made my skin look like it had never had a blotch before, and my eyes seemed bigger and bluer.

“I like it a lot,” I told her. “Thank you. I can’t believe how much work you put into me.” I turned my head and checked other angles, and I could easily tell that she had done a much better job than I ever had on my own, in the quiet of the night after my dad had gone to bed and I practiced in front of the bathroom mirror. “I don’t know if I could do this every single day,” I commented. “It takes a lot of time.”

“You don’t have to. I love the way you look without all this, but it doesn’t hurt to do more when you feel like it,” she answered. She looked at me in the mirror and nodded as if she felt satisfied with the outcome, and I looked back at her. Miss Gail wasn’t as tall as her son but she stood a few inches above me. She had his dark blonde hair, too, but her eyes were blue. “Ty never let meplay too much with his hair, but he used to let me do his toenails. He has beautiful feet.”

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